One of my guildmates recently left the guild in a high-drama fashion by /gquiting all of his alts because of something another guildmate said in chat to him. The thing is, he was being passive-aggressive and undermining our sign-up system for ZG runs, basically pissed off that we weren’t starting the raid 30 minutes early because we were trying to coordinate who was invited and trying to make sure we didn’t invite those who didn’t sign-up before those who did (we have a full raid every week and thus need a sign-up sheet online–it is the most fair system I’ve seen).

Anyway, he started making snide remarks in guild channel to which one of the organizers basically said “1. fuck you, 2. we have the system for a reason and it works. if you have a problem with it post about it on the forums.” And so the guildie left without a word and proceeded to log in all his alts and quit them too.

Now here’s the weird thing. This guy has always been helpful at the drop of a hat, willing to help level our lower level members, answer questions, what have you… He’s always been cordial and really laid-back. I guess he has zero tolerance for shit.

But I’ve come to realize that shit always happens. I think part of being mature is how you deal with it. The person who offended him was very quick to apologize, only the guy who left never heard the apologies since he quit. An aplogy was posted on our forums but who knows if he ever read it. We were more than willing to talk about what happened and to talk about the system we have in place for sign-ups. I don’t think our guild has been anything other than open.

Yet, another member who also recently left claims we have clique issues. I don’t buy it. The two guys who left seem to me to be hams. They like being the center of attention and when they weren’t getting that in our guild they left. When something happened that they didn’t like they left rather than try to work through the issues.

I think they don’t see it the way I do, but we’ll never know because they don’t talk about things. Why should they? It’s much easier to just find another group of people to hang out with.

I was playing around with the idea of working for my former employer, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. My old manager (who I thought was horrible at managing) isn’t there anymore and the head of the department we were in (who I also thought was a horrible manager) is also no longer there. I daydream about what the workplace could be like, but in the back of my head I know a lot of things won’t change. If I were to get there, any grand designs I have for their website and education programs and incorporating games into education would be put on the back-burner while the day-to-day crap would overwhelm me.

But still… I was thinking this morning. What if we created a mini web-based MMOG which featured science learning as quests? Would kids be into that? Completing an activity/quest could give players an equipable item for their paper doll inventory… I dunno… The details could probably be worked out, but it would require money which a non-profit does not have.

Then I thought… hmm… what if it were a live-action MMOG which took place in the museum itself? That might work. Kids would complete quests by demonstrating knowledge which they can get from certain exhibits. Upon completion they get a reward of some sort which allows them access to other areas… hmmmm…

I dunno… Just a thought.